Published: May 10, 2008 11:48 pm            

Late rally falls short in Owls' loss

FORT WORTH — Joshua rallied for four runs in the bottom of seventh inning, but came up on the short end of an 11-7 decision in Game 3 of a best-of-three area-round series against Western Hills on Saturday at North Crowley High School.

The Owls trailed 11-3 entering the seventh inning, but Reed Watson struck out to lead off the frame. The ball got away from the Western Hills catcher and Watson reached base.

Austyn Ross was hit by a pitch and Cayden Cunniff doubled home Watson.

Travis Anteau drew a two-out walk and Brian Kelly hit a two-run single to cut the deficit to 11-6.

“It was a team effort,” Joshua head coach Jason Bourgeois said. “The guys who came off the bench did the job. A key hit by Brian Kelly to keep the inning alive with two outs. That’s a pressure situation right there. He comes in and does a great job.”

Anteau came around to score when Jordan Allen reached on an error to make it 11-7 with runners on the corners, but Colton Turner popped up to third base to end the game.

“All year long, regardless of the score, these kids constantly battled,” Bourgeois said. “They battle in every game. [If they’re] behind and facing a deficit, I can rely on our kids to always fight. We wish it would have come out with us scoring at least four more runs, but I’m proud of the way our kids approached the game. It would be very easy for a high-school aged player to lay over and let it happen, but our guys didn’t do that.”

Western Hills held a 4-1 lead after two and a half innings, but Joshua picked up a run in the bottom of the third when Turner scored on a Ross RBI single.

Western Hills took command of the game with a five-run fourth inning to make it 9-2.

Watson came up with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to make it 9-3, but Western Hills answered with two runs in the fifth to stretch the lead to 11-3.

Joshua is losing six seniors — Watson, Austin Neal, William Fleischer, Kelly, Stephen Elrod and Hunter Morgan.

“That’s hard to replace,” Bourgeois said. “They’re the heart and soul of our team. Not all of them had an every day role, but everybody had a role on the team. It’s going to be real tough to replace those guys.”

        

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